SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Will Unveil Dragon V2 Space Taxi Tonight

Since 2012, private space company SpaceX founded by Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss Elon Musk, has successfully taken cargo to International Space Station on three separate occasions.Tonight’s unveiling will take place at a media event in Hawthorne, California at 10:00 p.m. EDT. The company will also steam the event via live webcast at http://www.spacex.com/webcast.

The Dragon V2 is being called “next generation spacecraft designed to carry astronauts into space,” according to a press release from SpaceX. It’s believed that Elon Musk will quite literally pull back the curtain on SpaceX’s Dragon V2 tonight as the company moves into a new space.

Russia and Musk

If The Big Bang Theory’s Howard Walowitz experience is any indication, the Soyuz rockets that supply the ISS are far from comfortable and given the heightened tensions between Russia and the States given the annexation of Crimea far from ideal. The Soyuz is, however, necessary given the retirement of the space shuttle program in 2011.

“After analyzing the sanctions against our space industry, I suggest to the USA to bring their astronauts to the International Space Station using a trampoline,” Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Roxine tweeted from his Russian-language account in April.

Not missing a beat, Musk tweeted, “Sounds like this might be a good time to unveil the new Dragon Mk 2 spaceship that @SpaceX has been working on with @NASA.”

SpaceX got competition?

SpaceX is not alone in its desire to resupply the ISS, The Boeing Company (NYSE:BA) recently released renderings of its own manned space capsule, the CST-100. The Sierra Nevada Corporation is also working on a manned-capsule they are calling the Dream Chaser.

While SpaceX’s work is impressive, this is a massive step forward for the company if it can pull off the Dragon redux.